To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
(Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
Kyodo World Services, senior sports writer:wmay52@hotmail.com)
IKEMATSU INTO S’FINALS, WOMEN SNARE OLYMPIC BERTHS
NEW YORK (September 13) - Kazuhiko
Ikematsu carved out a 6-2 win over Nikolaos
Loizidis of Greece and moved into the 66-kg
semifinals of the freestyle wrestling world
championships. With the score even at 2-2
in the second period, Ikematsu hit a double-leg
takedown for three points at Madison Square
Garden to nail down the win.
Ikematsu becomes the first Japanese wrestler
since 1995 to reach the semifinals of a world
meet. Takahiro Wada, now Ikematsu’s coach
on the national freestyle team, and Hiroshi
Kado were each semifinalists in the 1995
world meets on their way to silver medals
at 62 kg (freestyle) and 48 kg (greco-roman),
respectively.
Ikematsu, the runner-up at the Asian
championships in June, will square off with
European champion Irbek Farniev of Russia
in the semifinals Sunday, September 14. Meanwhile,
Chikara Tanabe lost to Uzbekistan’s Dilshod
Mansurov at 55 kg in a repeat of last year’s
Asian Games final and had to settle for seventh
place. Kunihiko Obata took European bronze
medalist Murad Gaidarov of Belarus into overtime,
but fell short of advancing to the quarterfinals.
Obata, however, appears to have qualified
for the Olympic Games in Athens. Results
of the championship bracket qualifiers would
leave Obata in 10th place, but official placings
will only be announced later. The top 10
place-winners in the men’s competition and
the top five place-winners at 48 kg, 55 kg,
63 kg and 72 kg for the women will be given
berths in the 2004 Games.
In the women’s competition, Kyoko Hamaguchi
prevailed in a battle of world champions
as five Japanese marched into the semifinals
of their respective weight categories. Hamaguchi
fashioned a 4-0 win over 2000 champ Edyta
Witkowska of Poland to keep her campaign
for a fifth world title on track. Defending
champions Saori Yoshida (55 kg) and Kaori
Icho (63 kg) recorded falls to move into
the semifinals while securing Olympic berths
along with Hamaguchi.
Chiharu Icho (51 kg), world runner-up
a year ago, and Seiko Yamamoto (59 kg), seeking
a fourth world title, booked semifinal berths
in non-Olympic weight categories. Makiko
Sakamoto went down to two-time former world
champion Irina Melnik of Ukraine in the 48-kg
quarterfinals, but appears to have done enough
to book the fifth and final Olympic ticket
on offer in New York at the lightest weight
category.
The men’s and women’s field for the
Olympic Games will be filled out in secondary
qualification competitions in February and
March.